Getting up quietly, I grabbed my boots from my closet and carried them as I tip-toed siently out my door and out to the kitchen. I set my boots down and climbed up onto the counter in front of the window there and opened it to the soft night breeze coming in that was warm from the late summer. Then silently and carefully, I popped the screen out the rest of the way that I had loosened earlier to make less noise and slid it to the side. Grabbing my boots and climbing out the window, I slid the window shut again and replaced the screen back in carefully and put my boots on.
'That was easier than I thought,' I thought silently to myself as I stood and silently walked across the garage roof to the far corner where I had the stack of six plastic lawn chairs that I lowered myself down onto with a little trouble as there was nothing to hold to get onto them. But luckily I got to the ground and checked to make sure the back slider was unlocked to the garage and found it unlocked as planned. I'd hate to find my only way back in blocked then have to explain how I got myself locked out of the house in the middle of the night. The eminent words of grounding came to my mind with what Dad and Mom would do.
Sighing at my real first attempt at sneaking out and so far being successful, I headed to the side of the house by the garage, careful not to make noise on the gravel and opened the gate slowly and quietly and shut it behind me before heading down the driveway to the street. Then I stopped and glanced at the moon waning from full already high in the sky as it was a few minutes past midnight.
Shifting my hoodie and tucking my raven black hair into my hood, I headed down the silent, deserted street with only a barking dog in the distance breaking the silence. There were a few crickets chirping but they went silent as I walked past them down the street to the park that was around the block and known to be haunted. The sound of frogs by the creek on the other end of the park was the only noise now. The pathway through the trees down to the playground gave me a chill as I passed under the looming branches that shrouded the silver moon's light. The wind gently blew from behind me sending another chill down my spine but I ignored it and kept heading down to the gazebo before the larger open field of the park rimmed to the east in woods.
'That wasn't so bad so far,' I thought looking back the way I came before looking around to the woods and one of the nature trail entrances into the trees from under the gazebo at the picnic table there. 'Why not head into the trail? It's not like there's anyone here.'
Getting up I did as I told myself and headed into it and gave a soft sigh. It was more peaceful at night with the soft chirp of crickets and frogs around and down by the creek that I would be coming up to as it wound through the trees. But as I kept walking. the feeling of being watched kept nagging in the back of my mind. I stopped and turned to look behind me as I came up to an area where the treetops broke and let down a steady stream of silver light. There was nothing behind me and I told myself I was being over imaginative. But as I turned around, there stood a guy at least twenty feet or so away staring at me with dark eyes and dark hair falling down to his shoulders. He looked taller than myself though I wasn't sure of his actual height. Then with a blink he seemed to disappear and I took a step backwards out of surprise but also unsure that going that way was a good idea or not.
As I turned around and went to go back the way I came, he was suddenly there behind me several feet away. This time I panicked and took a step back and turned running down the grass pathway as fast as I could only glancing back to see him still standing there with a confused look on his face. I decided to lose him anyways if he tried to follow and headed off the main path into the trees since I knew my way around easily.
Hitting a bunch of branches from a bush, my hoodie and cut off gloves I had on got caught and I struggled to get free. My hoodie came loose quickly but my glove got pulled off and I left it as I continued to run into the grassy area where the grass grew very long. This also was a problem with boots and there were often clumps where the blades tangled together and I'd tripped before just walking through there a few times. This time was no different.
Lurching forward as my foot got caught in a clump of grass, I fell to the ground and rolled several times before coming to a stop on my back. Pain shot up my leg from my right ankle as I stared up at the clear midnight sky dotted with stars and the silver leftover orb of the moon shining brightly. My heart pounded in my chest and in my head as I tried to catch my breath and pain throbbed from my ankle.
Suddenly the soft sound of footsteps came to my ears and I shut my eyes tightly unable to move in fear. My heart continued to pound and I swear it was pounding so loudly that the guy could hear it. A shadow fell over my face as the footsteps stopped and I slowly opened my eyes to see the guy standing over me by my feet, his dark eyes that looked black locked with my light blue ones as if he was trying to read my mind. He then swept his gaze down to my ankle and knelt down and reached a hand out and gently picked up my leg and untied my boot nad pulled it off, careful not to hurt it anymore than it already was. Then he pulled off my sock and stuffed it into my boot and I could feel his cool hands on my ankle. It felt soothing almost with the cold touch of his hands as he looked at it carefully. I knew it had to be swollen up already and the guy gently set it down as I sat up confused why he was helping me.
Taking a good look at him, he wore a similar styled outfit like I did with black jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt and black boots. He had his black hair loose to his shoulders and I spotted a silver stud earring in his left ear between his strands of hair that fell in front of his ear. He obviously liked the same style I did. He didn't look much older than me either at seventeen. If I had to guess he looked maybe nineteen or twenty at most. But the next instant he had pulled off his shirt revealing his upper body and a chest and abs that were well muscled along with his arms too. In the moonlight his skin seemed to glow as it looked paler than mine even. There was a ring hanging from a chain around his neck too. But another thing I noticed though was his nails as he held the bottom of his shirt. They were as long as mine or maybe longer and looked almost like claws too. He gave a quick flick of his thumb nail along the seam of his shirt's side and ripped it upwards a bit before tearing a long strip off from the bottom edge of it. Then he took that strip and gently wound it around my ankle so it supported it a little yet wasn't too tight either. He ripped a couple more strips off and wound it around where he left the last one and pulled out a safety pin he had in his pocket and ran it through the cloth so it held together securely.
Glancing at my bandaged ankle then to his torn up shirt, I suddenly felt a little guilty for some reason. He helped me even though I didn't know him at all and ruined his shirt to do so. I gave a mental sigh and pulled off my hoodie since I had a long-sleeved shirt on underneath anyways and held it out to him.